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There’s no good reason to shorten vote time

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In the Feb. 3, 2013 editorial “Compromise, not a brawl,”
The Dispatch urged Ohio lawmakers to resist partisan-inspired voting restrictions.

Over the past year, most of Ohio's other major newspapers have taken the same position.

Unfortunately, the Republican-led General Assembly has resisted this sensible, public-spirited
advice.

Just in time for the 2014 elections, the GOP is rushing to reduce early-voting days and hours.
In testimony, Rep. John Becker, the sponsor of several such Republican bills, repeated the myth
that reducing early voting would reduce the potential for voter fraud.

It is an established fact that in the 2012 election in Ohio, out of 5.63 million votes cast, the
instance of voter fraud was less than 0.002 percent.

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted has acknowledged publicly that voter fraud is next to
nonexistent in Ohio. And in the very rare instances when it does occur, the wrongdoers are
discovered and prosecuted, as they should be.

It is interesting to note that Becker and most of his Republican colleagues in the Ohio House
are always quick to label any sensible, public-spirited proposals related to weapons purchases,
such as background checks, as attacks on the Second Amendment. The GOP refrain is always: “Use
existing laws to punish the lawbreakers. Do not subject law-abiding Ohioans to restrictions on
their Second Amendment rights.”

This is the case even though, unlike the near nonexistence of voter fraud, the statistics are
overwhelming on gun violence caused by those who never should have had unrestricted access to
firearms.

Americans’ fundamental right to vote is guaranteed by the 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th
Amendments.

For Becker and a majority of his GOP colleagues, for some inexplicable reason, those amendments
are far less sacred than the Second.